“The safety of our employees, members and customers is always our number one priority. In recent years, Portland has been dealing with increased crime in our neighborhood and beyond,” REI wrote in an email to customers.
Legal Insurrection reported last week on how Whole Foods abruptly closed their flagship store in San Francisco “for the time being,” citing concerns over employee safety.
“To ensure the safety of our Team Members, we have made the difficult decision to close the Trinity store for the time being,” the company wrote in a statement on their decision to close the doors to a store that had only been in operation for just over a year.
According to the San Francisco Standard, a City Hall source told them that Whole Foods “cited deteriorating street conditions around drug use and crime near the grocery store as a reason for its closure.”
Unfortunately, San Francisco isn’t the only soft-on-crime city, with areas formerly filled with shops now looking like ghost towns and war zones as a result of drug and crime problems. Portland, Oregon, has been dealing with a steady stream of businesses announcing closings over the same issues, with the most recent one being REI’s Portland location:
The REI store in Portland’s Pearl District will close at the end of February 2024, the company announced on Monday.
In a letter to REI members, the company cited concerns over safety and an increase in crime over the last few years as reasons for the closure.
“The safety of our employees, members and customers is always our number one priority. In recent years, Portland has been dealing with increased crime in our neighborhood and beyond. Last year, REI Portland had its highest number of break-ins and thefts in two decades, despite actions to provide extra security,” REI said in its letter.